Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache. Goddard Pliny Earle

      They went with the Sun until they came to the top of the ridge, where they stopped. The Sun felt the horses all over. He felt of their legs, their feet, their faces, their ears, their manes, their backs, petting them. “Goodbye, my horses,” he said, “travel well for my boys down to the earth. There is food for you on the earth the same as here.” He addressed the gray horse, telling him to be the leader on the way toward the earth since he knew the way. He told the boys not to look at the horses' feet nor to look behind them, but to keep their eyes fixed on the tips of their ears.

      They started; before they knew it the horses had changed places, and the sorrel was leading. They thought the earth was far off but they soon found the horses were trotting along on the earth. Now the horses were running with them toward their camp. They rode up slowly where the people were walking about. They rode to the camp side by side, and the people all ran out to look at them. Their mother was standing outside watching them and they rode up one on each side of her. “Mother, Ests'unnadlehi, unsaddle our horses,” they said to her.

      The people all came up to them. The woman, laughing, ran her hand over the horses saying, “Your father gave you large horses.” When the people had all come there, the boys told them to call their mother Ests'unnadlehi. They all called her by that name. The older boy said they were to call him Naiyenezgani. The younger one said they were to call him Tobatc'istcini.20 They addressed them saying, “When we were here before you used to laugh at us because we were poor. We used to walk because we were poor. We have visited our father where he lives. The Sun's wife named our mother. Call me Naiyenezgani. That one was given the name, Tobatc'istcini. These will be our names and be careful to call them correctly. Do not come near these horses. We will stake one out here and the other one there. They will remain tied out four days. You may go.”

      Before sundown on the fourth day the horses whinnied. They went to their horses and saddled them. They rode around among the camps until sundown and then rode them to a flat where four canyons came together. They hung a white saddle blanket toward the east, a black one to the south, a yellow one to the west, and a blue one to the north. Their fly told them to hang the blankets in four places, making an enclosure of them. After four days they were to come and would find conditions different. He charged the boys not to miss doing just as their father had told them. They went back to the camp carrying the saddles, bridles, halters, and ropes. After two days had passed their fly flew away. He returned, reporting that there were many horses filling the place where the four canyons came together. The next day he reported that the horses were so thick one could walk on their backs. The next day (the fourth), about sunrise, the two boys went there with their ropes in their hands. When they came to the eastern canyon it was full of white horses, the southern one was full of black horses, the western was full of yellow horses, and the northern canyon with blue (gray) horses.

      They took down all the saddle blankets and piled them together. With valleys in four directions full of horses they did not know their former horses from the others. They considered how they might distinguish them. The horses were milling around near where a blanket hung. They were all mingled together with the colors mixed. The men approached the horses but they stopped before they got to them. They extended their hands with pollen on the palms and the horses whinneyed. Then two horses trotted up to them and licked the pollen from the hands of their owners who caught them while they did it.21 They led these horses back to the camp where the saddles, etc., were lying.